and that's actually very important for speaker boehner because despite the loss that paul ryan had on a national level, he still has a considerable amount of clout within the house republican conference where a lot of folks will look towards where ryan goes. if ryan votes yes, that gives them enough cover to vote yes on a deal. >> the republican house conference seems to be operating in an alternative universe because mr. ryan told abc that the president didn't have a mandate. rather, he and his house gap gop have one. he said i think the ideas we talked about, i think they're popular ideas. did the election not happen? >> when they say they're popular ideas, they believe that -- >> that the electorate dismissed them and did not vote for them. >> but they believe that the issue of the debt is still one that they're very strong on, that people do not like to have the $16 trillion debt, that their policies are the best moving forward. but, look, martin, if anything else what you are seeing here is a very smart political ploy by speaker boehner trying not to allow what happened in august